Lightning, Thunder, And The Turtle's Shell
by Lily Hanson
Summary: A huge storm hits the Shiba house, wiping out the power. The Rangers need someplace safe to hide out from the storm so they hide out in a fort built in the common room. Follows Way of the Samurai


_Disclaimer: I do not own anything_

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><p>"Go, go!" Jayden screamed to his team over the cracking thunder as they raced through the pouring rain in an attempt to make it inside before they were soaked to the bone. Only thirty minutes ago it had been a beautiful day, and after another victory against a Nighlok the Rangers had decided to take the scenic route home. It turned out to be a big mistake when halfway the sky darkened and the rain started coming down. The Rangers were unable to get home before the weather got really bad.<p>

Once inside, Jayden and Kevin had to push the door shut as the wind worked against them. Finally safe, the soaking wet Rangers looked down at their dripping clothes.

Mike removed his hood and grinned happily. He was thankful Kevin had forced him to wear his blue sweater on the way home. He was still soaking wet, but the hood had kept the rain from spraying into his eyes. Most of the other Rangers weren't as fortunate.

Antonio reached for the light switch to flip it on, but nothing happened. He flicked it a few times but there was still no light. Mentor Ji walked into the hallway at that point with six towels and a couple of flashlights.

"Don't bother, Antonio," he told the gold Ranger, "The storm has knocked out the power."

"Great, now we're wet and it's dark…" Emily muttered. She was startled when lightning lit up the room for a second and was immediately followed by a roaring thunder. She snatched the yellow towel from Mentor Ji and draped it over herself, trying to hide, "This isn't fun…"

"I love storms," Mia smiled. She took Emily's hand, "C'mon, I'll show you what my grandmother and I used to do when there was a thunderstorm."

"While they do that," Kevin had to peel the wet, green shirt off his skin as he removed it, "I'm going to get into something warm and dry."

"And your own colour," Mike added, ripping his shirt away from Kevin's hands. "We're not in public anymore. I want my shirt back."

"We should all get changed before we get sick," Jayden suggested.

The boys went off to their rooms to get changed into something warmer, stumbling through the dark because Mia and Emily had both taken the flashlights.

When they got back to the common room after drying off and putting on a fresh set of clothes, they were surprised to see a fort had been made from blankets, pillows and cushions. Inside the fort, the boys saw a light shining.

Antonio knelt down at what he assumed was the door to the fort and he pulled the blanket back. He looked inside in awe.

"Whoa, cool!" he crawled inside and the others followed. They sat comfortable in the fort, each on their own set of pillows, when they noticed something was missing.

"Uh, where are the girls?" Jayden asked. He looked around the fort again, just for good measure. They had to be here somewhere. Jayden was positive Mentor JI wasn't the one who built a fort in the common room.

"You didn't think we would sit around in wet clothes, did you?" Mia asked, making a sudden appearance in the fort from behind a blanket wall. She crawled to Kevin's side and when she sat up next to him the boys could see she had gotten changed.

"Where's Emily?" Mike asked. As soon as he asked the question he felt something cold and wet press against the bottom of his back, just above his pants. He yelped and jumped forward. Thankfully, the fort was secure enough to withstand the sudden jump. When the shock settled, Mike turned back to see what had touched him. He lifted the blanket and found himself staring at a snout. The snout pushed its way under the blanket until it turned into a full grown dog. The dog spun around the inside of the fort, trying to find a safe place to hide from the thunderstorm. Mike grabbed Scruffy before he caused the fort to cave in and kept him steady. "It's okay, Scruffers. It's just thunder."

Scruffy whined, though he was starting to relax now that Mike was holding him. He nestled into his male owner and took a seat right on Mike's lap.

"Oof," Mike grunted as nearly sixty pounds fell onto his legs. He stroked the dog's back, trying to get himself in a comfortable position, "Okay… okay, good dog. It's not scary."

Lightning struck again and the thunder roared loudly, causing each of the Rangers to jump from surprise. When the thunder calmed and their hearts slowed back to a regular pace, Emily crawled into the fort hurriedly. She saw Mike's lap was already taken by her dog and frowned.

"Not fair!"

"Where have you been?" Antonio asked. He saw she had changed her clothes but wondered why she had taken so much longer than Mia.

"Scruffy peed all over the laundry room floor and Mentor made me clean it up," Emily huffed. She grabbed one of the spare blankets from the ground and wrapped it around herself.

Jayden chuckled before he pointed to the rest of the blankets, which had been used to build the fort. He looked at Mia, "Was this your idea?"

Mia nodded, "I used to hate thunderstorms. When my grandmother found out, she decided I needed to outgrow my fear. One night, there was a really bad storm, kind of like this one, and like all kids I didn't want to be alone in the middle of the night. I raced to her room, but she wasn't there."

"She abandoned you?" Mike asked.

Mia shook her head, "No, never. When I saw she wasn't in her room I searched the rest of the house. That's when I found her in the living room… well; I didn't find her, exactly."

"You found a fort?" Jayden asked, assuming that was where Mia was going with her story. She nodded her head and smiled.

"Grandma popped out of the fort and invited me in. She told me the fort was like a turtle's shell. As long as we hide inside it, we were safe from the storm. We stayed inside the fort all night and when morning came and we crawled out, the storm was gone and the sun was out."

"So, every time there's a storm you build a fort?" Mike asked.

Mia laughed, "No, I outgrew that eventually, but little miss…"

Mia was cut off as the lightning blinded her and the other Rangers and the thunder sounded so loudly it was like the lightning had snapped the sky in half. Emily, in her panic and with no one to hold her, was instantly under the blankets, curled up in her own little ball.

Scruffy was also panicked. He no longer found comfort on Mike's lap and raced off, out of the fort, to find somewhere else to hide. Thankfully he had used the door and the fort was still perfectly intact after his sudden and forceful departure.

The Rangers all had to swallow their hearts, which had jumped into their throats when the thunder and lightning hit, but once they were calm they began to laugh. Antonio was the first to see Emily was still buried under her blanket and placed a hand on her back.

"It's safe to come out now," he told her.

"Stop laughing. It's not funny," her voice was muffled slightly from being under the blankets. "Last time there was a storm this bad I was still on the farm and a really bad tornado ripped the roof from our house and destroyed the barn."

"Did your cow get caught in the tornado?" Mike asked with a laugh. He reached for his girlfriend and tried to pull her onto his lap, but Emily couldn't be moved.

"I like Mia's turtle idea," Emily answered. "And like a turtle, I'm not coming out until it's safe."

"Would a blanket really protect you more than me?" Mike asked. Emily poked her head out from under the blanket and looked up at her boyfriend. Mike signalled for her to come over and she did, bringing the blanket with her. Mike wrapped his arms around her and her blanket, keeping her safe through the storm.

Antonio was smiling through the storm, "I've always loved lightning."

"You are the light guy," Jayden nodded his head.

"Speaking of, can you turn on the lights with symbol power?" Emily asked.

Antonio shook his head, "No way, Amiga. This is fun."

"You know what my dad and I would do when there was a blackout?" Kevin decided it was his turn to share a little history. Mia had already told the team about her thunderstorm forts. A little more sharing would help take everyone's mind off the raging storm outside and it would pass the time. Everyone looked at Kevin with interest so he continued, "When thunderstorms were really bad and the power was out, we would play hide and go seek. My dad or I would hide, usually in plain sight because it was so dark, and the other person would have to use the two seconds of light from the lightning to find them. The rest of the time, they had to use their other senses."

"Sounds like a fun game," Jayden smiled. "Mentor and I just used to sit and watch the storm. He would tell me stories about my father and the other Rangers… your parents, I guess."

"My dad used to run into my room when there was a storm, thinking I would be scared," Antonio shared with the group. "But like I said, I've always loved lightning. He usually found me standing by the window looking up at the sky. He would sit with me until the storm passed and we counted how many lightning bolts we each saw."

"I never hated thunderstorms at night," Mike shrugged his shoulders. "It was during the day when they bothered me. If the power went out, I couldn't play my video games unless they were battery operated. My dad always tried to use that time to get me to train because there was nothing to distract me. When the storm passed, the training always stopped and mom always had stove-popped popcorn waiting for me."

All eyes then fell on Emily, waiting for her to share.

"Aside from the time the tornado came through, whenever a thunderstorm ripped through Serena always crawled into my bed with me. We shared a room before she got sick, so she always used to know when I got scared."

"What about after she got sick?" Kevin asked his little sister. There were always two parts to Emily's childhood.

"Well… when she was sick but could still move around she would still crawl into bed with me. Once she got too weak to leave the bed and she moved into her own room I had to learn to brave the storm by myself."

"You didn't go to your parents?" Mia asked.

"They were in Serena's room making sure all the machines were still working," Emily shook her head. "I got over my fear, until the tornado and this stupid storm."

Lightning lit up the fort again but this time it took a few seconds before the thunder cracked. The Rangers jumped at the sound, but were a little less startled due to the delay.

Mentor Ji finally returned to the common room and crawled inside the fort Mia and Emily had made. With him, he carried a tray of snacks for the Rangers to eat.

"I assumed you would all be hungry after your fight with the Nighlok," he said. "I also assumed you would all be staying in here until the storm passed."

"That's the plan," Mia nodded, reaching for one of the bowls.

"It's a good thing you defeated the Nighlok when you did," Mentor said, getting comfortable inside the fort. "Imagine if you had to fight in this weather."

"That would be so cool!" Antonio grinned happily and he started bouncing with excitement. "Talk about epic battles."

"I'm good," Emily muttered, covering her head with the blanket once again.

"The bad weather should last the night," Mentor said. "If it leaks into the morning I'm afraid we'll have to train inside for the day."

"Training can't be cancelled due to bad weather?" Mike asked.

"Not when we have an indoor dojo," Mentor chuckled at Mike's attempt to get out of morning training. "You Rangers had better rest up. Tomorrow will be like any other day."

-Samurai-

Mentor's prediction had been right until morning. The storm had lasted through the night but calmed down as the sun started to rise in the morning sky. The common room, and the inside of the Ranger's fort, was no longer illuminated by lightning, but by sunlight.

Mentor hadn't slept in the fort with the Rangers, so when he woke up in the morning he decided he would check up on them and make sure they had made it through the night, and the fort hadn't collapsed on them.

He poked his head between the blanket walls and smiled as he got a look at his sleeping Rangers. Kevin and Mia were curled up together and they were using once of Kevin's sweaters as a blanket to keep warm. Emily was still buried inside her blanket and she was still rolled into a tiny ball as she rested against Mike's chest, wrapped tightly in his arms. Antonio and Jayden were huddled in their own little corner of the fort, fighting in their sleep for what little space was left.

Mentor decided to leave the Rangers to sleep a little longer. He couldn't bring himself to wake them.


End file.
